This course deals with changes which took place in democratic systems and associated ideas since the end of the Cold War, and the rise of the “New World Order”. Issues to be discussed include: circumstances and changes leading to the laying down of international standards for being a democracy, and the notion of there being externally defined criteria for political legitimacy; changes in the understanding and practice of national sovereignty, and the relation of this to international law, war and peace; changes in the role of the United Nations.
